KOLKATA: An emotional appeal made by the mother of a student accused of heckling the Union ministe Babul Supriyo in Jadavpur University campus on Thursday has gone viral.

In the video, Rupali Ballav, mother of Debanjan, the student who was seen among a group which heckled the minister, urged the minister not to harm his son. Rupali, who is suffering from cancer, urged the minister to forgive her son.

Supriyo Tweeted on Saturday saying, "Don’t worry aunty, I won’t harm your son." In his Tweet, Supriyo said, "Don’t worry mashima (aunty). I won’t harm your son. I only want him to learn from his mistakes. Neither will I file an FIR or allow anyone to press charges. Don’t worry. You focus on your recovery. My prayers are with you."

Panchayat and rural development minister Subrata Mukherjee said the vice chancellor of Jadavpur University could have called police to intervene when the ruckus was going on. "When the situation was going out of control, he could have called police and asked them to enter the campus to bring the situation under control," he said on Saturday.

Supriyo came to the university to attend a programme of the ABVP. The General Secretary of Arts Faculty Students' Union (AFSU) Debraj Debnath said he has no knowledge about anyone named Debanjan Ballav taking part in Thursday's agitation.

"Mainly the students of the Jadavpur University took part in the protest on Thursday against the entry of BJP leader Babul Supriyo into the campus, who is known to have made inflammatory statements in past," Debnath told PTI.

The protest rally on Friday "against the bid of fascist forces like ABVP to enter the campus" was attended by thousands of students from various colleges in the city to express their solidarity, he said. The AFSU had on Friday alleged that 'outsiders' vandalised its union room and broke windowpanes of the Arts faculty building.

The AFSU could not explain why a student of Sanskrit College, affiliated to the Calcutta University, was present during an agitation at the JU.

A source in the Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) said to his knowledge Thursday's agitation was mainly organised by AFSU, SFI and All India Students' Association (AISA) members of the institute.

However, some students from other colleges and universities also attended an AISA programme inside the campus earlier in the day and some of them might have joined the JU students during their protest against Supriyo, the source said.